From Olympic Bongs to Free Corn Flakes

From Olympic Bongs to Free Corn Flakes: All Things Work Together for Good..

We have discussed the fact that some bad things just happen for no good reason. But as people of faith, we cannot stop there. We must not concede that evil always has the last word. Many truly bad things can be used to bring about truly good things. First of all, this could include some things that we “perceive” as bad at the time which are, in the end, good things. Several types of events come to mind. Cindy’s trip to the doctor for bronchitis leads to an x-ray that reveals an unexpected, but treatable cancer. Stan’s job loss leads to the opportunity of a job in a career that he always kind of wanted to do anyway but he hated to risk his stability. The situations could be more extreme. A wealthy couple’s new home burns to the ground, forcing them to rely on each other and discover what’s really important to their family. A painful infidelity leads a rock singer to the woman he always should have been with in the first place. (cf. Chicago’s 1988 mild hit, “If she would have been faithful” off Chicago XVIII). In all of these cases, something that was truly perceived as bad, later can be seen as a blessing. It is not fair for us to say that these events weren’t really bad, at least at the time. All of these events were bad in and of themselves, especially something as tragic as the loss of a home or infidelity of a partner. But seen in a broader context over time, these events are not seen as being as bad as they once seemed. We might call these experiences, “Not so sucky after-all events.”
There are other events which remain as bad as they ever were, but God somehow brings good out of them, often ironically, and sometimes humorously. The most recent example I’ve encountered of this occurred recently in the midst of the Michael Phelps’ bong photo debacle. Here we have an 8 time gold medal winning Olympic American hero. The good kid who hits the big time and makes his country and momma proud. Proud, that is, until he hits something else besides the big time. What makes things worse is Michael fails to notice his buddy over his shoulder with his camera phone trained on his pot-bong whilst he takes that hit. Granted the event was not intended to cause an uproar in his life, but a few months later it wreaks havoc on a truly Fox-Network-free American idol. Michael comes clean, apologizes, and accepts many forms of societal punishment for his mistake. One of the most financially painful punishments is the loss of some lucrative sponsors. Kellogg’s is in a dilemma. Here we are, the promoter of wholesome cereals.. And now we just produced a butt-load of Corn Flakes with a stoner on the box! What to do with all these Phelps-faced corn flakes? Ironically, corn flakes make a pretty good munchy so any Kellogg’s action against hashish is a bit self-defeating. Still, the brass at Kellogg’s decide to drop the Phelps sponsorship. No official action was taken with the cereal boxes that bore Phelp’s post-bong, pre-mug shot. However, the San Francisco food pantry experienced a miracle. 3800 pounds of Kellogg’s cereal randomly showed up on their doorstep, all with Michael Phelps’ awkward grin on the boxes. Cereal is very difficult to get donated, apparently, and the cereal has flown off the food pantry shelves faster than Phelps’ swam the 100 meter breast stroke. The result is that a an American sports tragedy becomes tasty corn flakes for thousands of San Francisco’s poor.
It seems to me to hold true that if Jesus can feed the 5,000 with 2 loaves of bread and some crappie, then God can feed 5,000 with a digital photo of a sports hero taking a bong hit. This is not just divine providence. This is divine poetry. It is not only God having fun, but God simply taking something bad and making something good out of it. This is God doing what herm does best, take the broken tragedies of our lives and make something beautiful out of them. It is the speech-impeded fugitive, Moses, leading his people out of Egypt. It is the coniving, momma’s boy, Jacob, fathering the 12 tribes of Israel. It is the murderous David who can’t keep his rocket in his pocket becoming a “man after God’s own heart.” And it is the folly of the cross on which a murdered homeless man becomes the savior of the world.
Romans 8:28 is a powerful verse that has been wielded in many a bad situations. “…God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” This verse is often turned to as a quick fix for any concern that may arise as to why something bad has happened, usually in someone else’s life. But the wording is important here. It doesn’t say God causes all bad things to happen or even that God causes anything specific to happen. It says that God causes all things “to work together for good....” This means that although life sucks, God is able to do something beautiful with our screwed up world. It means God is in in the business of recycling our discarded trash, dislodging the shrapnel of our bad decisions, restoring the softness to our dried up Play-doh lives so we can try again. It means God can and does take that which is meant for evil and turn it to good. This is what it means to turn discarded champions into real Corn Flake heroes and turn the murder of the Son of God into the ultimate symbol of love and hope. ( save this for next chapter?) And this leads to the central tenet of the Christian faith, God’s work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.